Okay, But That's Worse

From “The Good Place,” an odd little TV show that produced some memorable lines. This one seem endlessly applicable.

Before I get into the top five stories of the year, starting next week, I’m clearing out some links I’ve been saving as follow-ups to previous stories.

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Special Thanksgiving Sale

But first: I normally do an end-of year roundup of the top stories of the year, combined with a Holiday Sale, and a pitch for donations to support my work at this newsletter. For various reasons, I’m doing that early this year as a Thanksgiving Sale and fund-raising drive.

Subscribe or renew now at 10% Off.

I set the current subscription price in 2021, so to keep up with inflation, I suppose I would have to raise it, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 25%. But because the economy is fragile, and I want to keep you all as subscribers—and lure a few more in—instead I’m offering 10% off temporarily.

Take advantage of it while you can, because now that I’ve done that calculation, I might be raising the subscription price in the new year.

You can also give a gift subscription.

Or donate to support The Tracinski Letter.

And of course, buy my new book, Dictator From Day One, to get ahead of the Christmas rush.

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The Gods of the Copybook Headings

Here’s a follow-up to what I wrote recently about the turning of Donald Trump’s electoral fortunes.

It turns out that a panel of federal judges has blocked the Texas gerrymander that was supposed to get rid of multiple Democratic seats in Congress. It was blocked because the judges considered it to be a straightforward racial gerrymander.

“Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map,” District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote for the panel.

The distinction between racial and political motivations is important legally. The Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot allow race to predominate when drawing lines but has given them free rein to use political calculations.

This doesn’t surprise me, because the intent to perform a racial gerrymander was pretty openly declared. The whole Texas redistricting was kicked off by a letter from Trump’s Justice Department encouraging Texas to get rid of majority black voting districts that had been required under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in an effort to end a century of deliberate voter suppression under segregation.

There is a longstanding debate about whether enough time has passed that such measures are no longer valid. But given everything that’s been happening recently, it’s clear to me that the legacy of Jim Crow is still very much alive today. (The latest: Under a new leader appointed by Trump, the Coast Guard just announced that it would no longer regard the swastika as a symbol of hate—and then hastily reversed the decision, after it was reported.)

But aside from that big issue, if the intent of this gerrymander was to deliberately eliminate black-majority districts, that would be unconstitutional even without the Voting Rights Act. This will go to the Supreme Court, and it’s anybody’s guess how they will rule.

If the ruling stands, though, this is the “dummymander” writ large.